Dave Fortin's Wreck Page
Intro
Welcome to my main wreck page. In these pages I attempt to document the various wrecks of the Kwajalein Lagoon. At the present time, I lived on the island of Kwajalein in the southern end of the atoll from 1997 thru 2006, so I will have more detailed information of the wrecks in that area. It is my goal to provide a list of all known wrecks in the area, their location, hints on anchoring/diving on them, and hopefully a few photos to give you a feel of the wreck to some extent. I welcome any corrections, additions, comments, etc. Please drop me a note if you have anything to add that would make this site more useful.
Coming to Kwajalein
At the moment (April 2006) there is no commercial dive operation running dive charters at Kwajalein to the best of my knowledge. Therefore, diving of these wrecks is generally limited to local residents and their guests.
Wreck Names
For any of the wrecks that have a "real name" associtated with them, that information is based on information passed down by divers over the years. Much of this information has been documented in works by Broadwater, Bailey and Miller. See the link to references below for more information on these informative resources. Where a real name was not available, a local name was used or created.
A Note on Wreck Positions
For the vast majority of the wrecks in the southern end of the atoll (from Eller Island and points south), I have carefully marked each wreck position by attaching a float and marking them with my GPS. I believe them to be very close. Some of these ships can be several hundred feet long, but I have tried to mark either the middle of the wreck or the buoy (where applicable), so hopefully my coordinates will get you on the wreck. I am now working on marking the bow and stern position of the larger wrecks to get a better feel for exactly where they are and their orientation. Perhaps I will note that on these pages in the future.
A Couple Words on Anchoring
In most of the wrecks on the southern end of the atoll, I try to provide some hints/suggestions on anchoring on/near these wrecks. This is what works for ME. As a boat captain, you are responsible for properly securing your boat, so be sure you are comfortable with your situation before diving!I find that a great accessory for the more serious wreck diver here at Kwajalein is a small folding grapnel anchor and 175+ feet of polypro anchor line to bring down as a second anchor. This works well on many of the wrecks. I never trust the mooring buoys that are there. I ALWAYS bring a second means of securing when I signed for the boat! The polypro line floats, so as you free your anchor the slack line will float clear of the wreckage. Again, that works for ME. I'll just pass that along. If you can use it great.
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